For those who have been dying to know, the Top Ten List of Annoying Phrases has, in fact, been compiled by Oxford researchers. (How many of these phrases have you used recently?) The list is as follows:
- At the end of the day
- Fairly unique
- I personally
- At this moment in time
- With all due respect
- Absolutely
- It's a nightmare
- Shouldn't of
- 24/7
- It's not rocket science
There are several I could easily add to this illustrious list:
- The use of "literally" to add emphasis (ex. "I literally died of shock!")
- The use of "decimate" to mean "completely destroy" (ex. "I decimated that keg!")
- The verbalization of "lol," "lmao," or any variation thereof
- The use of "actually" in that incredibly patronizing way people so often use it (ex. "Actually, the pilgrims were not as strict as people think...")
What would you add?
"It is what it is." Get this at work frequently. It has been known to cause brain shutdown asit's one of those cutesey, too-obvious statements people use rather than actually address significance and meaning.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good one to add! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know people got fed up with 'absolutely'.
ReplyDeleteI've been annoyed with 'touching base' lately, but maybe that's because people keep making me do it.
LOL
ReplyDeleteI get irritated with "touching base," too. Can't you just say "We need to meet"?
These are all mostly work-related but enormously annoying:
ReplyDelete'It is what it is' (thanks Chaos)
'Can you drive this issue? "
'Who's the owner on this one?'
'I've got a hard stop on this meeting'
'What are the deliverables on this project?'
I also go crazy when acronyms get out of control. Recently I overheard my boss tell my coworker this: "I need two trendlines on the PL report. One showing the NOI and one showing the OR. Then I need a second graph showing the PPM for ACDC and NACDC for Q2, Q3 and Q4"
Argggh!
Thanks for the additions. Maybe I'll start compiling the Coffee-Stained Annoying Phrases list soon.
ReplyDeleteI get annoyed with every phrase that's overused. I suppose that's what the Oxford list is about. While we're listing them, "destroyed" is often misused as well, as in "we destroyed that keg", when what we actually did was empty it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about "destroy." I suppose my example in "decimate" wasn't the best, but that's the way I often heard it used in college.
ReplyDelete